Fwd: Suzhou vs. Soochow

From:

"Dr. Ian Montgomery"

Very
touchy subject, the American version of English. After the numerous
postings regarding vendors let's not spark a trans Atlantic sparring
contest. About to
stain for the presence of a ciliate in the tissue of Norwegian lobster.
Any suggestions for a suitable stain?
Ian.

Bob Richmond has performed a real service for older
histologists. Americans over the age of 40 learned geography when
the accepted English spellings of foreign place names were based on the
usual English mispronuncians rather than on the actual names. Thus, I
learned Suzhou as Soochow, Beijing as Peking, etc. Chinese places
weren't the only ones to get this treatment. We learned the capital
of Turkey as Angora instead of Ankara and the capital of Georgia as
Tiflis instead of Tiblisi. The Italian cities of Firenze and
Livorno were Florence and Leghorn to us. Even in this day of
reformed spelling, most Americans write Vienna instead of Wien and
Copenhagen instead of Kobenhavn.